Best way to import SketchUp objects to Archicad?

[Leticia Beraldo]

Hello,
First of all, sorry for any English mistakes, is not my first language

I've been trying for a while to find the best way to import objects from Sketchup, but still can't find a way that is quick and effective. I work with Interiors Design mostly, and sometimes need small details that many people normally don't use. But, I still need a fast workflow, and that includes a not heavy file, so I always try to decrease the polygons of the objects.

The options are:
1. I can drag and drop inside the Archicad and leave the object as it is, but a lot of objects that are curved turn to multifacetaded, too ugly to use, specially decorations... And more important, most of the objects are very heavy.
2.When I convert to morph, the object loses the texture mapping, so when it is an image it is impossible to use, I rarely can do this way.
3. One of the most effective ways I found was to convert to morph, export to 3Ds, import in a software named Blender, decrease the polygons in this software, export to 3Ds and import again in Archicad. The object looks very good, but in this way, loses all of the materials, and it takes even more time to apply all the textures I want. Then, I ajust the object's 2D and image visualization to save as object.
4. The last possibility at the moment is the famous Modelport. Many people has indicated that plugin, but since I'm from the other side of the world, the price is too expensive for year. If it was a plugin to buy just once, I would pay happily!

Could someone help me? Maybe exists other plugin similar to Modelport, or a process faster than the options above...
I know that there is many options to download objects already in .gsm online, but a lot are converted from 3Ds files and is so heavy!

Thank you very much!!

[Marc H]

Hi Leticia,
I have only imported a few Sketch-Up files, mostly whole building shells. I used the Merge import method for those. The resulting ‘object’ looks great and seem fairly small in poly count. However, I prefer not to use them for precision modeling work, only general visualization.

For interior objects, I try to find well-made objects and sometimes convert them. In cases of items with high poly counts (e.g., furnishings and equipment), I prefer to create those items anew in AC using the morph tool. Then they are native with fewer polys.

[Israel Freitas]

Same problem Here... Still looking for a solution. I could just import sketchup models into Archicad and keep as they where imported, but every time I export to Lumion the textures are renamed and they lose ther settings.